GURUGRAM: The measles-rubella (MR) vaccination campaign for schoolchildren across the statehas hit a hurdle with at least 37
private schools refusing to participate in it, citing lack of consent of parents.
An unvaccinated child can be the carrier of the virus, thus affecting the immunisation drive.
On February 14, TOI had reported a similar controversy over a deworming drive that was held across schools in February. While government schools don’t appear to give the question of parents’ consent much thought, private schools want parents’ approval before implementing such government schemes.
Moreover, there is still no clarity on the total number of children to be vaccinated under the
MR campaign because the education department has not provided a complete list of schools. Nearly 75 per cent private schools to be covered under the programme have been identified by
health workers themselves.
The state-wide campaign will be jointly implemented by the education and health departments from April 25.
All students from nursery till Class X in the age group of 9 months to 15 years will be immunised under the programme. The vaccination is to be given to children once a year for total population immunisation.
According to births registered in Gurugram, there are 8 lakh children in the city in the prescribed age group. However, so far, the health department has identified only 6,37,284 lakh children as the education department has not provided a list of schools.
According to the data available till date, nearly 530 government and 1,357 private schools will be participating in the campaign. These include only 336 private schools identified by the education department. The remaining 1,021 private and play schools have been identified by Asha and aanganwadi workers in the past two months.
A senior health official told TOI, “This also raises questions about the authenticity of these private schools which are not even registered with the education department. There is no check on hundreds of unregistered schools and playschools across the state as well as on the children studying there. Had the schools been registered, they would have been included in the education department’s list.”
Also, nearly 37 private schools from the district have refused to go ahead with the drive without getting the parents’ consent.
Doctors said that this could put the purpose of the campaign in jeopardy. “Herd immunity is important in this case as those who are not vaccinated would not be protected and would also be carriers of the virus. Moreover, this vaccination can be supplied only by the government and is not available in private clinics. This is MR (measles-rubella) vaccine and parents should not confuse it with the
MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine,” said Dr MP
Singh, district immunisation officer.
The deputy commissioner has now instructed the education department to communicate with the schools and convince them to participate in the MR campaign.
